CITY ROOM; Speculation, and Some New Clues, About an Unearthed Ship

By ALISON LEIGH COWAN

Published: July 16, 2010

Two days after construction workers discovered the keel of a centuries-old wooden ship at the site of the new World Trade Center, New Yorkers continued to speculate about what might have caused the mysterious vessel to come to rest amid layers of landfill.

Hundreds of readers weighed in about the ship on the City Room blog. Some fretted that it might have ferried human cargo. Others were convinced that it was a whaling ship. The whaling enthusiasts were confident asserted that a metal arc found on the keel, not far from some loose bricks, might have once belonged to a fire-powered fixture that helped sailors process blubber.

Meanwhile, city officials said Thursday that additional clues had surfaced since the keel was found Tuesday at a site bounded by Liberty Street to the north and Cedar Street to the south.

Among the new finds: an anchor located near the ship, and some spikes that might help pinpoint the age of the vessel.

Archaeologists who examined the ship were confident that it was deliberately placed in the ground as landfill back when Lower Manhattan was expanding in several directions. They say New Yorkers threw anything they no longer needed into these cavernous projects, from discarded cherry pits to old shoes and animal horns.

Amanda Sutphin, the director of archaeology for the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission, said she was confident believed that the vessel had been retired in the late 18th century because maps as far back as 1797 show a newly created Washington Street weaving its way over the site where the ship was unearthed. ''By 1800, there was a street on top of where it was found,'' Ms. Sutphin said.

Doug Mackey, the archaeologist for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, said dendrochronology, a branch of science that uses tree rings to date wood, could pinpoint the age of the ship with some precision. He said he was skeptical of the view that the metal arc and bricks suggested a whaling ship, speculating that they could simply be remnants from an ordinary cooking platform in a galley. ''If it was a whaling ship,'' he said, ''it would have been much more extensive.''

The discovery also continued to spawn humor.

''Somewhere at some law firm,'' one reader wrote, ''someone has been tasked to determine who owes how much for the dock slip for 300 years' time.''

This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.

PHOTOS: Above, an 1802 depiction of the Brooklyn shore. Right, a 1797 map showing the spot in Lower Manhattan where a vessel was found on Tuesday. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK; NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY)